Dive Brief:
- The North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC) has submitted its physical security plans for the grid to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for approval. The NERC prepared the plans after a FERC issued an order on March 7, 2014.
- The proposals follow the order closely, requiring transmission owners and operators to bolster security at "critical transmission stations and substations" and "associated primary control centers." The point of the plan is to help protect against physical attacks that could cause large scale outages across the country's main electrical grids.
- Utility transmission owners would also be required to prepare lists of critical facilities, calculate their relative risks of attack and create comprehensive security plans to prevent any such eventualities. They could also be subject to random third-party auditing for compliance.
Dive Insight:
The proposals come in the wake of a sniper attack last year on a Pacific Gas & Electric substation. According to a leaked FERC report, a coordinated attack on nine critical substations could cause cascading outages and a nationwide blackout.
The NERC plans gained 86% approval prior to submission from its industry partners, but one of the largest critics of the plans was the Bonneville Power Administration, who worried that NERC's proposals are practically impossible to carry out.
"Will we need a 24-hour on-site armed security force because the location is too remote to augment detection technology with fast response to keep losses to an acceptable minimum level? Will we need security walls constructed to be as impervious as those of a maximum security prison?" BPA asked. "The list of potential risk mitigation barriers is endless, as is the cost of building and maintaining elaborate barriers for facilities that cover acres of ground."
But industry appears to be largely in favor of NERC's proposals. Now, the onus is on companies to respond. "This analysis has to be done by each company," NERC CEO Gerry Cauly said.